Nearly 700 Are Dead in Record India Rains

Emergency workers pulled dozens of bodies from mud and debris today as the death toll from record-breaking monsoon rains rose to 696 in western India.

About 370 of the victims died in Bombay and surrounding areas of Maharashtra state, said N. Nayar, an official at the government’s emergency control room in the city, India’s financial hub.

Some areas of Bombay were deluged Tuesday by 37.1 inches of rain, the highest recorded one-day total in the nation’s history.

The amount virtually equaled Los Angeles’ total for the entire 2004-05 season, whose 37.25 inches missed its yearly record by only .93 of an inch.

Most of Bombay’s downpour fell in a few hours, transforming roads into fierce rivers. Victims drowned, were crushed by walls or were electrocuted.

“I lost count of the number of people who were electrocuted. There were clusters of people who stepped on exposed wires,” civic relief worker Arya B. said.

Rescuers piled bodies onto trucks and flagged down cars to carry injured people to hospitals.

Rain stopped Thursday and by today, hundreds of stalled, abandoned cars had been cleared from most roads.

In the Bombay shantytown of Nehru Nagar, rumors a dam had burst triggered a stampede Thursday, killing at least 15 people.

In the northern Bombay suburb of Saki Naka, a shantytown was crushed when a hill collapsed. At least 110 people were killed, and more than 45 others were missing.